Jays’ Ryan Borucki starts against one of his early idols

Ryan Borucki, a left-handed native of Mundelein, Ill., about 80 kilometres north of Chicago, grew up idolizing the southpaws he watched with the Chicago White Sox, his favourite team.

Ryan Borucki had a couple of talented left-handers to model himself after while growing up a White Sox fan: Mark Buehrle and Chris Sale. (Fred Thornhill / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

From the time he was 6 years old, Borucki was enamoured with Buehrle, the White Sox ace who wrapped up his career with the Blue Jays. And when he was 16, he started watching Sale, the hard-throwing left-hander who started in the Chicago bullpen in 2010. He moved to the rotation when Buerhle left for Miami before the 2012 season.

“I grew up watching (Sale) with the White Sox and, for me, I was the same kind of pitcher — I was really tall and skinny like how he was ... and just kind of slung it, didn’t really have much mechanical work going,” Borucki said over the weekend. “Really just trying to go out there and throw, and that’s what I did.”

The two faced each other for an inning Tuesday: Sale for the Boston Red Sox, Borucki for the Blue Jays.

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The 24-year-old Borucki says he doesn’t usually pay much attention to the other guy on the mound, though it is cool to go against guys he has watched dominate. And Sale falls into the category. He has been an all-star in each of the last seven seasons, a Cy Young vote recipient every year since 2012 and an MVP vote recipient ever year since 2015. In 23 starts this season, before Tuesday, he had a 1.97 ERA, an 0.849 WHIP and 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

“He’d probably be one or two,” Borucki said of the active pitchers he’d like to match up against.

He didn’t face the 29-year-old Sale for long Tuesday.

Fresh off the disabled list, Sale had pitched just five innings since July 27 as he struggled with mild inflammation in his left shoulder. And Boston manager Alex Cora eased him back in by using him as an opener against Toronto. Sale went one inning, throwing 26 pitches and striking out two.

“Two (innings) the first time, hopefully three the second time, then keep going,” Cora had told reporters in Boston. “And then the last one, whenever it is, like a full-go, six or seven innings and 100 pitches.”

It’s “the luck of the draw,” manager John Gibbons joked about the rookie facing the veteran.

The skipper doesn’t see many similarities between Borucki and Sale on the mound. The Jays’ youngster is more Buerhle-esque than he is similar to Sale, Gibbons said, but “either way you can’t got wrong.”

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“Sale’s a power pitcher, he’s got the great arm, different release point-type thing. He’s a strikeout guy. Ryan can get some strikeouts but that’s not what he’s known as, he’s got to be a contact guy, get a lot of ground balls, he’s got to win that way. He’s proved to us he can do that.”

For an inning, though, they looked pretty similar. Borucki struck out the first two batters he faced in the scoreless first. And he only needed half the pitches Sale did.

Borucki, who made his big-league debut in late June, is getting more with the Jays. But he admits it is still weird to be the guy welcoming his former Buffalo Bisons teammates — and giving them tips like what clothes to wear to the park and where to sit on the plane — like fellow starter Sam Gaviglio did for him.

“Here is just a little bit different, you just need to kind of tighten stuff up when you’re here,” Borucki said.

Borucki entered Tuesday looking to tighten things up from his first start at Fenway Park, when he lasted just three innings, giving up seven runs, four earned, on eight hits. He called that July start, his fourth with the Jays, a “crazy” experience.

Laura Armstrong is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraarmy